Oh Sew Addicted

This week was a particularly stressful and problematic week. Most of the happenings were stressful and depressing and it was hard to concentrate. Work was torture. And even my creative time was interrupted by negative and beyond negative thoughts. This certainly is not my normal mood, but life has thrown some very intense curve balls this week..... and it has been a challenge just to get out of bed and face life. I am having problems being my normal and optimistic self! As you may imagine, this really affects the sewing and creative mojo!

The most exciting thing about my week was that my blog was featured in the Seams Inspired blog! The link to the post is HERE. Larri at Seams Inspired is a very inspiring mom and an awesomely creative soul. I like to read her blog and she posts frequently. I met her through Friday Sew & Tell at www.amylouwho.com!!!! Thanks Larri for your kind words about my stitching!

My work was also featured on the Jenny's blog.... in her Friday Show & Tell HERE. Her work and her life inspire me so... and I just ♥LOVE♥LOVE♥LOVE♥ sewing her designs! Thanks Jenny!

I concentrated this past week on creating things for other people. I met a wonderful and supportive lady on Facebook named Debbie. She has a business called Unique Aprons by Debbie. You can find her Facebook page HERE.  I think her creations are awesome. She saw a pincushion I made online and wanted to know if it was for sale. I told her that I had not yet started selling my creations, but I would make her a gift and she could return the favor by making me one as well.

So my holiday weekend was spent devising and implementing a plan for Debbie's pincushion. First, it did not seem right to just make one pincushion since I like to make a pincushion that fits in the palm of your hand. I remembered having seen a pincushion trio online that someone had made (can't remember where I saw it) with some of my favorite patterns and they had placed the pincushions on a cute white plate. So I decided that I would try my own version of the trio from memory. I also decided to make Debbie some beautiful beaded pins to match the colors in each pincushion.

Here is my creation that Debbie loved!

Here you can see the 3 pincushions displayed on the white plate I bought at Cost Plus!

I wanted to use really bright and happy colors!

Turquoise, Pink & Purple! YAY!

Here is the view from the other end of the plate!

Here is the view of the entire plate! Sew pretty!

The Square Deal Pincushion is relatively easy to make. The hardest part is putting the ribbon through the fabric and polyester fiberfill of the pincushion. I love the beautiful vintage green button I used for the center. Then I used my glue gun and glued the glittery pink flower in the center!

The free pattern for the pincushion can be found HERE.

I just absolutely love the colors and these fabrics!

Here is another view from a different corner of the pincushion.

Then I went on to the second pincushion made with some of the same fabrics. I used embroidery thread to chain stitch around the edges of the pincushion. And I used a purple button that I handmade out of purple ribbon!

The free pattern/step by step tutorial for the pincushion can be found HERE.

To finish your pincushion and to make it look like there are individual "petals", see the tutorial HERE. It is really easy to do this part. You just need a really long sharp upholstery needle and some embroidery floss!

It looks hard, but it is truly easy peasy! If I can do it..... you can!

I really ♥ the purple button. I need to make more of those!

Another close up! You can really see the chain stitch around the perimeter in this pic!

The final pincushion I made myself with a fussy cut flower from one of my favorite patterns. I used the pink and turquoise fabric from the other pincushions to make a quilt block that measured 3" square. Then I sewed it to a 3" square of the purple flowered fabric for the back and voila! A colorful home for your pins!

Here is the pincushion on the white plate.

In this photo, you can see where I sewed pearl beads at each corner and a glass bead design at each inner corner. This detail adds a really nice touch!

In order to make my package extra special, I made Debbie some of the pins I love to make!

I made 3 sets of 4 --- one dozen total!

Turquoise!

Pink!

Purple!

I will need to work up a tutorial to make the pretty pins!

I need a name for them! Any suggestions??

I also made this embroidery block for a swap partner. She is making me a block and I am making her one! This is Brutus the cat and this stitchery is Block 7 from Red Brolly's Catalicious BOM. You can find the free pattern HERE.

I am participating in the following linky parties. You gotta check out the inspiration on these sites, because there is so much creative goodness to be found out there in blogland! You just gotta go do this NOW!

Luckily, all of these things kept me pretty busy and kept my mind off of my current set of challenges. I am doing the best I can to remain hopeful and I trust that next week will be better than the last. I can pray anyway.... can't I???

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy thoughts and happy stitching!!!

Carla♥